Armored Core: Renaissance
by SilverARyuu
Summary: Earth has been ravaged by chaos and destruction, and has now been thrown into an apocalyptic wasteland. Mercinaries roam the ruins of the Earth, wielding deadly power. When hope seems lost, a hero emerges from amongst the fire and blood. Chapter 3 is up!
1. Kick Start

**After quite a long time, I've decided to work on the sequel for "Armored Core: Redemption". Seeing as Armored Core 5 is not out yet in English, I won't be updating beyond this until some time after March 20****th****, but enjoy this lead in!**

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><p>The boy looked up to his father as he closed the large book.<p>

"Is that the end?" Sankari asked his father, taking the book and flipping to the back page. His golden eyes scanned the pages, looking for more. "There has to be more action…" The young boy whined.

Sankari's father chuckled. "Not all stories are like the ones nowadays." He gently took the book from him and placed it back on the makeshift shelf behind him.

"Dad…? Is that story real?" The boy asked, sitting back down next to his father.

Sankari's father gazed off into the distance. "I hope so. If that story is real, that means that the righteous Armored Cores in our world will soon triumph over the evil ones eventually." The man continued staring into the distance, his dark gold eyes worn down from the war.

"I hope you're right. We have yet to find a hero that can save us." Sankari sighed heavily.

The man smirked. "There's a reason we gave you the name 'hero' in Finnish, and made your middle name 'Silver'. We hope someday you will become that hero you speak of."

Sankari smiled happily before closing his eyes. "I know. I plan to become a great hero and stop all this destruction when I can pilot an Armored Core."

Both of them stared off into the distance as the sun set. They could hear the faint roar of an Armored Core, and hoped that it wasn't an enemy as Sankari started to drift off to sleep.

~-~-~-Armored Core: Renaissance-~-~-~

Sankari lurched out of his sleep to see his surroundings crumbling and shaking violently. His father had already picked him up and started descending the stairway hastily. The ceiling began to crumble upon them, the eroded plaster shattering when it collided with the floor, scattering shards of rubble in all directions. Sankari could see a bright orange light through his eyes, which had not fully adjusted to the light and movement around him.

When they rounded the corner of the landing, wall behind them gave way, sending large chunks of rubble flying at them. Sankari's father hugged Sankari tightly, shielding him from the projectile debris, but they force sent them both tumbling down the second flight of stairs. Sankari came loose from his father's grip, sliding across the harshly uneven floor.

Sankari's eyes finally adjusted, but his mind was too frazzled to entirely understand what was happening. He could feel his body convulsing from shock, fear and confusion, as well as pain from impacting on the ground level. The entire building he and his father had been hiding out in was now falling to pieces, painfully groaning as the weathered steel beams began to give way from all the excitement.

Sankari's father quickly pushed himself up, sweeping his son up and making a mad dash towards the side door before the ceiling they had once considered home crushed them both. The air roared with the snapping of steel and roar of destruction from outside the building walls. Just as they neared the blasted open doorway, a bright orange mass of chaos ran the building through, sending enormous heaps of debris sailing through the air. Sankari and his father were sent rocketing out of the doorway, once again skidding to a halt on the ground.

Debris continued to crash down around them, whipping up billows of sand and dirt. The dirt in the air lit up orange from the chaos erupting from what was left of the building. Now Sankari could hear the sound coming from the chaos, now out of the belly of the beast. A terrifying, high-pitched screeching could be heard amongst the ripping and tearing of plaster and steel.

As the dirt cleared, they could see clearly what was ripping apart their former home. An Armored Core stood in a deep stance in front of the building it was eviscerating with its horrific weapon. Neither of them could make out exactly what it was, because the section of the weapon that was being used was spinning too fast, trailing fire and light around it. Fire roared behind the Armored Core's heels as it retracted the weapon from the building, its rotating slowing down. Once the weapon stopped moving, it unfolded from around the machines hand, spreading all six glowing saws wide before folding behind the Armored Cores back neatly. Steam and fire billowed out from the mechs shoulders as its head-piece folded back to its original state, the once frightening eye replaced by a "Y" shaped red slit. The mech reached back and pulled out an assault rifle in its left hand and a folded sniper rifle in the other.

A maniacal cackle erupted from the Armored Cores pilot as the mech raised its assault rifle at the two cowering civilians.

"Looks like I've smoked out a couple scavengers, eh? Not much of a hassle, but can't risk havin' you all alive!" The pilot chuckled, steadying the rifle. "Too bad you never got to fight me in a real battle."

Sankari and his father closed their eyes as the deafening sound of gunfire erupted. Sankari felt blood cascade over him as multiple bullets littered the ground around him. He could hear the sound of metal grinding along the hard dirt ground, followed by the roar of boosters. Dirt pummeled his body as gunfire and explosions sounded off in the distance.

The warm flow of blood was still dripping off of his face as he opened his eyes, but he felt no pain. Nothing had hit him.

A chilling fear crawled up his spine as he looked around for his father. Behind him, sprawled out from the impact of the assault rifle bullets, was his father, or rather what was left of him. His head had been ripped off by one of the bullets, only leaving scorched and torn flesh at the base of his neck, still erupting with blood. His body had been hit at least twice, but from the size of the bullets, it was hard to tell.

Feeling tears rushing from his eyes, Sankari let out a scream of terror and sorrow as tears and blood pooled beneath him.


	2. Initiation

"…Sankari… Sankari… Sankari, snap out of it!"

The young man's posture jolted upward as he finally heard his name being yelled over the communication channel. The voice made his ears ring, and still faintly echoed in his headset. His eyes were slowly re-adjusting to his very closed-in surroundings. Small square lights flickered around his head, and three screens lit up the small space he occupied. His hands were loosely draped over handles on opposite sides of him. The monitors in front of him started to focus as his eyes completely adjusted. He could now see the small white lettering underneath the flickering lights. On the monitors he could see a long street with bent streetlights and decaying wreckages of cars and other structures. Two large machines stood on either side of him. Both of them were bipedal, but the one to his left, colored a pale white with dark red highlights, had reverse-jointed legs. The other had heavy plating, and bent slightly so that the entire machine was level with the reverse-jointed one. A third machine trotted into the monitor's view, much shorter than the other two due to the quad-legged design.

"Jeez, rookie," A female voice rang out over the comm channel. "We thought you had passed out. It took us a solid two minutes to finally get your attention." She scoffed. "That kind of behavior will get you killed."

A deep male voice quickly chimed in. "Raven, be nice. This is only his first mission since his training finished. You remember when you first stepped into battle? You nearly got ripped to shreds because you were afraid to pull the trigger on your enemy."

Snarls of irritation rumbled out from Raven, a faint thud sounding over the intercom. "You swore never to talk about that again, Befehl." He anger could almost be heard over the comm channel, sending a shiver down Sankari's spine.

"Now, now… Don't rip each other's throats out. Save that for the targets, 'lright?" A lighter male voice sounded as the reverse-joint stepped between the quad and heavy weight. His accent was quite thick, but not so much that Sankari couldn't comprehend him.

Silence hung in the air for a few seconds, all of the machines completely still. Raven broke the silence.

"Yeah. Fine," Defeat coated her tongue as she let out a heavy sigh. "Dammit, Shiloh. Your pacifist ways will get you annihilated some day."

Shiloh chuckled hardily. "I'm hardly a pacifist, m'dear. Simply a well taught negotiator." He corrected her playfully. "Now, to the matter at hand, eh?"

Sankari quickly shook his head. "Y…yeah. Sorry." He apologized softly. A second later, he felt his machine shudder and creak deeply.

"Sorry will get you killed, rookie," Befehl grumbled. "I don't need a corpse in my squad… and speak up when spoken to. That little voice will get you nowhere and won't even scare a fly." He barked, turning to face the street in front of Sankari. "Now let's not waste any time. We've got a commission to fulfill. The client wants the forces taken out in the city before they overrun the hospital five miles behind us. We have the upper hand since the enemy doesn't expect Armored Cores, especially four of them." His Armored Core turned slightly to look back at Sankari. "Don't disappoint me, Sankari. I let you in for a reason; I saw promise in you during your training. Don't make me regret it, boy."

"Yes, sir!" Sankari piped up, sitting up straight in his cockpit, gripping the handles on either side of the cockpit.

Sankari's Armored Core contrasted greatly in color to Befehl and Raven's Armored Cores. Mostly blue armor panels and the occasional red highlight heavily accented the light grey tinted armor plating. The machine's singular eye glowed a mix of yellow and orange, almost appearing golden. Raven's mid-weight mech was almost uniformly tinted a dark crimson with a slightly darker under-plating. Befehl's mech sported a main coat of camouflage green with a lining of bronze, along with dark grey under-plating.

The colors Sankari chose for his Armored Core were not simply for aesthetics. He remembered the story his father had told him almost 16 years ago. The great hero of the NEXT legend, Silver, had piloted a white, blue, and red NEXT. The machine was named "Retribution", and was the third revision he had made on the Retribution series. In honor of Silver's legend, Sankari had deemed his Armored Core the "Retribution Mark VI".

The words always repeated in Sankari's head when he thought of why he colored his Armored Core the way he did. His father had said 'We hope someday you will become that hero you speak of'.

Sometimes those words felt more like a curse than an honor.

"Alright, enough standin' around, let's go!" Shiloh called out, igniting his boosters and charging down the street. Befehl and Raven quickly followed, Raven taking the lead with her stronger boosters. Sankari quickly followed after, keeping his eyes on the street. His boosters brought him slightly passed Befehl, but just behind Shiloh's Armored Core.

"Check weapon systems. We don't want to go in unarmed. If they catch any sign of us, we'd be target practice for them," Befehl ordered as his mech raised its weapons slightly. The heavy weight mech held weapons perfectly complimentary to its intimidating build. Its right hand held a large Gatling gun, and its left held a thick howitzer.

Shiloh's mech held a Gatling gun in its left hand, but also had a pulse machine gun in its right. The pulse machine gun had three energy capsules along the top to hold the energy-based ammunition, but also gave the weapon a more intimidating appearance.

Raven's Armored Core readied its weapons next. Her quad-legged machine had completely different weapons compared to her counter-parts. Her Armored Core, Nightmare, held a short rail cannon in its right hand, and held rather basic-looking rifle in the other.

Sankari took a slow, deep breath as he flicked both plastic locks on the top of the handles and pressed down on the revealed buttons. He saw first a series of red bars trail from his shoulder to his wrist on either side of the cockpit, and then the red bars were replaced with blue bars. His mech raised its rather standard weapons. In its right hand, it held a long battle rifle. Its left hand held a long-barreled cannon, the base of which sported a wide barrier to protect the user while firing the heavy weapon.

"All systems are good, sir," Sankari called out, closing his eyes momentarily before taking a deep breath once again, and then gripping the handles tighter.

"Good. Enemy activity is minimal right now. I think now would be the perfect time to strike. Raven, Shiloh, flank them as Sankari and I take the middle path." Befehl barked, increasing thrust and heading around the corner of a crumbling building. Sankari nodded, knowing that order was indirectly aimed at him, telling him to follow Befehl with a frontal assault.

"Roger, sir!" Raven and Shiloh both responded, breaking off in opposite directions as they rounded the corner.

"Enemies are approximately 100 kilometers ahead. Be careful of your movement. They surely have recon units active just as a precaution," Befehl's Armored Core, Groller, slowed down a bit, the roar of its engine lessening. Sankari did the same, keeping a considerable distance between Befehl and himself, knowing that if a heavy firefight broke out, Groller could definitely take more hits than Retribution. Sankari spotted a large iron gate in the roadway directly in front of Befehl and himself. "Rookie, be ready. Once we break down that gate, our attempt at sneaking will be thrown out the window. Ready your weapons."

Nodding, Sankari hovered his trigger fingers over the raised trigger on the inside of the handles. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he felt adrenaline course through his veins, excitement making his heart feel like it skipped a beat or two.

Sankari nearly jumped as Befehl let out a primal-sounding battle call and initiated the Glide Boost thrusters. Groller lurched forward, crashing through the iron gates in their way. The young man's eyes widened just before he initiated Retribution's Glide Boost as well, following behind Groller.

Heavy ballistic blasts sounded from all directions as they entered the ravaged plaza. The automated voice saying 'battle mode initiating' was nearly muted out from the noise as Sankari and Befehl charged through the low-hanging pavilions. Both pilots turned their mechs to face back-to-back, guns upright and aimed at the rows of tanks and mortar troops, caught completely off-guard and frantic from the unexpected assault from the duo of Armored Cores.

Groller's Gatling gun mowed down anything it struck, tearing up the ground and already structurally compromised buildings in the process. Retribution's cannon blasts ruptured the ground with each heavy impact, sending any tanks not hit in the direct blast tumbling over foot soldiers and adjacent mortar units.

The tanks farthest from the iron gates were now rotated towards the approaching mechs. Sankari lurched forward as he combusted his thrusters' output, crashing through a nearby tank in order to avoid a volley of mortar strikes. Groller remained along its path, barely phased by the heavy strikes upon its armor. Befehl chuckled audibly over the intercom, launching Groller upward and boosting sideways away from the next mortar strike. He aimed his howitzer at the tanks and fired in between them. The heavy shell impacted deep into the ground, erupting shards of shrapnel and concrete, tearing apart the out-classed infantry units.

Sankari weaved around the tanks, blasting the remainder of the units with his battle rifle. Still ready to fight, he turned to Befehl, who was just finishing off decimating the last tank in the plaza.

"Befehl, we have a problem. I think they had a hunch we were here before hand. There's a squad of Armored Cores 150 kilometers head of you in the next plaza. From our scans, it appears one of them is equipped with a long-range Overed Weapon. Please use caution, sir!" Raven called out over the intercom as the duo pushed on, readying their weapons for the next encounter.

"Sankari, I guess this is more of a initiation than I hoped. Let's get them," Befehl spoke to the rookie in a calm, yet strong tone.

Sankari wasn't sure how to respond, so he simply nodded, almost forgetting Befehl couldn't see his nod. It didn't seem to matter, however. He knew Befehl understood his eagerness and his worry.

The road split off just before a tall tower, and both of them split off in opposite paths, mentally preparing for the engagement ahead of them. Just as Befehl rounded the corner, he initiated his Glide Boost, charging bravely into the plaza. A bright blue light zoomed passed Groller's head, nearly taking out its shoulder piece. The sound of the explosion behind him told Befehl that one of the enemies had a plasma gun, and was knew how to aim for the head properly.

Retribution was nearly blasted by a group of missiles as it rounded the corner. Sankari jerked sideways, boosting his mech sideways, and then forward to out-maneuver the missile group. His attempt at dodging did not work quite as he planned, as two of the missiles curved enough to ram into Retribution's left shoulder, staggering the mech slightly. Sankari's eyes quickly focused on the missile sentry gun placed conveniently at the corner on a slightly raised building. He gritted his teeth in irritation, remembering the trouble he tended to have with missile pods. One tips Befehl had taught him replayed in his head. 'Aim for the base', he was always saying when Sankari wasn't able to directly hit the missile launcher section.

He aimed his battle rifle towards the base of the sentry and pulled the trigger. The first few bullets missed, blasting chunks off of the building, but the next group of bullets struck along the base of the pod, causing the pod to flip forward. Just as it did so, the automated timer fired a group of missiles, which only succeeded in exploding just under the pod, effectively destroying it.

Retribution charged forward passed the destroyed pod and into the plaza, raising its cannon to prepare for the pod's user. A stream of fire immediately welcomed him in his path. Sankari boosted to the left, moving closer towards his enemy. The stream coming from the lightweight's weapon shifted towards Sankari again, leaving a trail of fire behind it. Quickly, Sankari boosted underneath the hovering Armored Core and pulled the trigger for his cannon, launching a shell directly into the mech's arm. The stream of fire curved upward as the lightweight's arm was sent spinning and crashing into the concrete.

The deep blue lightweight landed on the concrete heavily and reached backwards, replacing its long and clunky missile pod dispenser with a heavy weight heat howitzer, pointing the wide barrel at its white adversary.

Knowing direct combat would be foolish, Sankari lurched backwards, firing off a few rounds from his battle rifle at the lightweight as it fired off a blast from the wide artillery weapon. Retribution boosted sideways, facing its back to the enemy as it slipped behind the raised building the missile pod had been on previously. A massive eruption of heat blasted outward as the incendiary shells impacted the building. Sankari quickly reloaded the clip for his battle rifle as he neared the edge of his cover.

He spun Retribution to face his enemy, both the battle rifle and cannon aimed directly forward. He emptied his full clip into his enemy's core, shaking the lightly armored mech with every strike. Once his clip reached only a few bullets, he launched a cannon shell directly at the lightweight's head. The shell cleanly ripped off the mech's head, toppling it backward violently.

Sankari looked over quickly toward Befehl as the heavyweight's enemy exploded violently from a direct howitzer blast. Retribution boosted sideways and slipped behind a wall of buildings, initiating its scan mode.

Befehl caught sight of Raven and Shiloh as they slid out from the street and into the plaza, barely avoiding a heavy blue laser barrage. Nightmare reached back, the automated hangar arm grabbing the howitzer from its left hand, replacing it with a heavy shotgun. Nightmare lurched sideways as a heavyweight mech rounded the corner, its triple-pronged energy rifle poised to fire. The quad-legged mech swiftly flanked its enemy as Shiloh's mech, Sky-Talon, distracted the heavyweight with a volley of pulse and heavy Gatling rounds. The heavyweight as far too busy retaliating on the target in front of it to notice the blood-red Armored Core round behind it, shotgun at the ready. Just as it began to switch its weapons for a heavier firefight, its front core erupted in sparks and shrapnel as shotgun slugs ripped through the steel plating.

Slowly, the heavyweight fell to its knees, shuddering spastically. Raven aimed her shotgun at the back of its head and pulled the trigger, exploding the heavyweight's rounded head.

Shiloh and Raven quickly regrouped around Groller, taking the brief silence to gather their thoughts.

"How many Armored Cores were there?" Befehl asked, letting out a short but heavy sigh.

"From our initial recon search, there appeared to be four," Shiloh answered, shifting his gaze over to the wreckage of Befehl's foe, scattered quiet haphazardly over a wide area. He then looked over at the recent kill, then over at Sankari's kill. His brow quirked as his eyes darted around with curiosity. "Befehl… where is Sankari?"

All of them started looking around frantically. There was no sign of wreckage, and Sankari had successfully killed his target. None of their scanning systems could see any allied or enemy signatures within the vicinity of the plaza.

"Sankari, report in!" Raven called out over the intercom, still looking around for even a sign of their ally.

-  
>The sound of metal on metal sent a shiver up the pilot's spine as his mid-weight Armored Core deepened its stance. The pilot's dark blue eyes casually drifted to the raised orange switch at the top right of his control panel. He looked back up at his monitor, letting out a scoff as a sly smirk grew on his dried lips.<p>

"They look scared. I sure hope they don't suspect I'm still around. That'd be… disappointing." The man spoke in a gruff voice as he looked over at his headset, making sure it was turned off and as far away from his as possible. "Time to give them their present," He flicked the orange switch and quickly gripped hold of the mech's handles as the monitor began to flicker, all of the status sensors going on and off rapidly. The entire machine began to shake as the large weapon on its back began to unfold. A curved panel folded upward first as the large barrel behind the Armored Core's right shoulder swung outward, and then forward as the cone-shaped power source began rotating to rest upon the machine's shoulder. The barrel was lifted upward by an automated arm, rotating to align with the curved panel. Once it locked together, the barrel lurched to the mech's front, latching onto its shoulder, creating a small eruption of sparks and fire. As the bottom layer of the curved panel broke away and hooked around the mech's right shoulder, the barrel extended, spreading out the glowing pipes and revealing a long nozzle, equipped with a bipedal stand. The weapon lowered itself down, once again sparking as it ground up against the wielder's shoulder.

The pilot's eyes narrowed as he aimed his reticle over the trio of Armored Cores about 200 kilometers in front of him. He held down the right trigger and the large cannon began to hum as electricity charged around the base of the barrel and the power source. The pilot's eyes traced the almost complete circle around his reticle as the humming from the cannon became almost deafening.

"It was fun while it lasted, mercs, but your time has come." The man scoffed as he started to ease off of the trigger. His eyes quickly darted to the bottom right of his monitor out of habit, checking the recon count. His heart skipped a beat as he heard exactly what his monitor told him.

Retribution leapt upward, kicking off front the building just behind the sniper Armored Core.

"Wooohoo!" Sankari called out as Retribution clocked the stationary mech with a solid roundhouse kick to the back.

The whole mech shook with the impact, snapping the bipedal support holding up the heavy cannon. The weapon and its user slide along the rooftop, crashing through into the floor just below. Unable to recover in time, the Armored Core lost its footing and tilted forward and began tumbling off of the building. The pilot let out a pained grunt as he was tossed back and forth in his cockpit. The force of the impact made him release the cannon's trigger as it fell, forcing the heavy cannon to fire its charged short straight down at the ground. Blue and red flames radiated outward violently as the mix of ballistic and laser ammo struck the ground.

The heavyweight Armored Core fell face-first into the flames, scorching its grey-blue armor plating as it rocketed towards the streets below. In an attempt to at least remain level with the ground, the pilot initiated the main boosters frantically. This only helped correct the angle that the Armored Core was falling at, and failed to even remotely slow the mass of metal.

The ground caved downward as the mech crashed feet-first into the concrete. The sound of shattering servos could be heard as all the built up force crushed down on it. The pilot's head lurched forwards and rammed into the control panel upon impact. Out of instinct, he struggled to flick the Overed Weapon switch back to its original position so he could attempt to fight back with his normal weapons. Just as his bloody finger hovered over the switch, the mech shook again.

Retribution landed harshly on its enemy's cannon, crunching the weapon beneath its weight. Retribution reached its left arm back, switch its cannon for a compact weapon. As the weapon locked around its arm, the opening in the front lit up. Fire and energy flickered at the tip of the weapon, crashing a waterfall of fear on the enemy pilot. Sankari pulled Retribution's left arm back, aiming directly in the center of his enemy's core. With a heavy grunt, he thrust the handle forward as fast as he could.

Both the weapon and Retribution's arm impaled the heavyweight, accompanied by screeching from metal grinding along metal. Without hesitation, Sankari pulled the trigger, and the enemy Armored Core erupted streams of fire and lightning. Sankari boosted backwards and away from the exploding machine.

With a confident smile, Sankari began heading back to regroup with his squad.

**Well, I hoped you all liked this chapter. I'm sorry for the extensive length for an early chapter, but I couldn't find a natural point to cut it off. **

**Anyways, stay tuned for the next chapter! I intend to work on the next chapter quite extensively, but SAT practice, school, and a few other important things are a greater priority. Be patient, readers. **

**Also, feedback is recommended so I can improve. Review please!**


	3. A Blinding Dark Light

"…Well that mission was easy enough, eh Befehl?" Raven scoffed, leaning back in her AC's cockpit. Her bright blue eyes closed as her smile reached her cheeks.

"Heh, yeah. That was a piece of cake. Those junkyard ACs can't match up to us. Though I can't help but think our ACs could use some tuning." Befehl responded, checking the readings on his HUD. "Looks like most of our energy efficiency is poor at best."

Shiloh could be heard grumbling over the intercom. "If you'd have listened to me earlier about upgradin' our garage, we'd actually have a repaired monitor. Ours're crappy. It can't even read the second-generation boosters at all." He brushed his curly blonde hair out of his eyes as he rested against the side of his cockpit, gritting his teeth with distaste.

"Hey, how about we leave the bickering for our paychecks, alright? That's what decides how much we have to spend. Luckily the Corporation is paying quite generously for what we did. We should be able to buy a new garage monitor and scanner." Befehl calmly retorted, closing the system windows on his HUD.

For a few minutes, everything was silent except for the sound of the propellers outside of their mechs from the carrier helicopters holding them far above the ground.

Raven tapped on the side of her cockpit idly, starting to feel fatigue wash over her from the long mission. "Hey… Sankari's been really quiet." She commented softly. "Rookie? Are you there? You haven't said word one since we went into battle."

"Raven, he's prob'ly sleeping. He's still young." Shiloh assured her, leaning back in his cockpit. "And we're pretty old, so we need rest too." He chuckled, grinning wide.

"Speak for yourself, I'm 27." Raven snarled, narrowing her eyes.

"Damn, and I thought with that cranky attitude you'd be at least 40." Shiloh began cracking up wildly, holding his sides tightly.

Raven pouted in her seat and crossed her arms. "I'm beating you senseless when we land, Shiloh."

The helicopters slowly descended onto the large runway as stretched armored transport cars rolled up to them. When the Armored Cores touched the ground, the helicopters disengaged their latches and took off to their landing pads.

Nightmare's core opened first, quickly followed by Sky-Talon's. Raven leapt out as soon as she saw Shiloh touch down, scowling at him. Her hair fell down passed her shoulders as she landed on the runway and stormed over to Shiloh. Befehl was fearful she'd actually beat Shiloh senseless like she'd said, but instead she playfully whacked his head, trying to hide her smile under a weak scowl.

"Don't you dare call me old, grandpa." She scoffed, crossing her arms. She received a pat on her head from the much taller man, making her puff out her cheeks and put on a flustered look. Her eyes narrowed more, trying to hide her slowly growing blush.

"You're just as innocent as y'look." Shiloh chuckled, ruffling her hair before walking over to Befehl. When he had turned his back, Raven whipped around and silently mouthed curses at him, motioning to flip him off, but still stifling a smile.

"Well, we should head back." Befehl spoke softly just before yawning. "I'm done for the day… And can someone wake up Sankari? He hasn't left his cockpit yet."

Raven nodded, trotting over to the Retribution. She heaved herself up enough to reach the cockpit's manual eject latches. After flipping the switches, she lowered herself enough to not get hit by the moving cockpit hood. After the parts had settled, she lifted herself up once again, and was perplexed by what she saw.

Sankari was sitting straight up in his cockpit, still gripping the ACs handles. The HUD was off, but he was staring straight forward as if he was looking at something. Raven's brow furrowed in confusion as she went to pull his hand off of the handle. It wouldn't budge. He was gripping the handle as tight as he could, and he was shaking.

Feeling troubled by this, Raven put her hand gently on his shoulder.

"Sankari… what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost…" Her voice sounded softer than it had been before, and she felt him loosen up a bit, enough to let him turn his head and look at her. Tears had begun to well up in his eyes, and it looked like he had been crying before, but he said nothing. He slowly let go of the handles and nearly melted into his seat.

"…I saw him…" Sankari spoke almost inaudibly. "When I… I hit the AC… The blade was in the cockpit. He… Oh god…" The young man covered his face with his hands, groaning and shaking his head. "…I knew I had to activate the blade, or he'd…" He was cut short as Raven embraced him tight.

"It's fine, Sankari." She cooed, breathing slowly.

"No, it's not!" He yelled, pushing her away. "I've become that… monster! The same one who—" This time he stopped himself, the flash of fury and fear on his face melting away. Raven let out a heavy breath, trying to plan out her next words.

"Sankari, I want you go and sleep. You don't have to talk about it now, okay? I'll be in later." She smiled warmly, and thought she saw a flicker of a smile on Sankari's face before he stood up and slowly eased himself out of the cockpit. When they both touched the ground, Befehl and Shiloh remained completely silent as Sankari headed towards the base. Once he was inside, the two men face Raven with curious looks.

"What happened? He seemed fine before we headed out." Befehl asked, rubbing his chin in wonder.

"I don't know, but apparently the pilot he killed before he met up with us didn't die quickly, and he saw it happen. He had a choice of killing him quickly, or letting him suffer." Raven explained. "That's the only explanation I can come up with."

"But who or what is 'that monster'?" Shiloh gazed over to Befehl, hoping for him to shed some light on the situation.

"I don't know, but he's in no shape to fight right now. I hate to sound like an ass, but he needs to be fixed so we don't fall behind." Befehl was quickly met with a hard slap that echoed throughout the runway.

"He's a human, Befehl. Not a machine. You can't just 'fix' humans like an Armored Core." Raven snapped at him, trying her best to seem intimidating, although Befehl stood a few inches taller than him. Her shift in tone was enough to shut both men up. Raven glared into Befehl's green eyes unwaveringly before storming off to the base.

Shiloh watched her walk off, his eyebrow perked high. He shuffled slowly to Befehl and leaned close. "And I thought I'd be the one slapped today…" He whispered before heading back to the base.

* * *

><p>Sirens blared through the humid air as explosions lit up the darkening sky. Frantic boots stomped on the concrete as dozens of workers rushed inside the armored facilities. Panels opened up on the higher buildings, lifting vertical missile and heavy ballistic sentries high.<p>

"Defenses are in place!" A woman called out over the intercom as she frantically switched camera views on the perimeter of the facility. "AC is not within visual range, sir."

In facility's operating room, the workers' fingers flew to check the status of the facility as their eyes bounced from monitor to monitor. A tall man stood in the center of room, his arms crossed. He wore a black suit, his collar lined with white. His dark brown eyes stared at the largest monitor, which showed the main entrance of the facility's security surveillance.

"Are you sure this wasn't a false alarm?" He grumbled, dropping his arms. Not a second after, the entire room shook violently, knocking the man to the ground. After shaking off the disorientation, his eyes shot to the main monitor. The thick gate had been kicked in, ragged and bent in the center. "Where is it?" He snarled, rushing up to the defense grid's monitor.

"AC detected in the oil field, sir." A worker replied without hesitation.

"Fire the heavy ballistics. Hit the oil if you have to. Burn him alive! He's not getting this facility from us!" He quickly turned on his heel and strode hastily to the door.

"Where are you going, sir?" Another worker quickly asked, worried that their guidance wouldn't be able to assist.

"I'm taking the fight to him. Keep him busy, and weaken his armor a bit." He commanded before slamming the door behind him.

* * *

><p>"In coming AC! Fire vertical missiles!" A female's voice called out over the loud speaker, echoing through the facility as the sentries faced towards the main entrance. The missiles ignited upward, then activated their secondary boosters to chase after the approaching Armored Core, only to be shot down quickly by a shotgun blast.<p>

The white Armored Core drifted around the corner to face the vertical missile sentries. Its compact head had a small antenna sticking out the back panel, and a single yellow-tinted eye gleamed from under a panel in the middle of the head. Its core was sleek, but was raised at 45-degree angles as a ridge followed along either side, then dropped off when it reached the back. Its right arm had a hollow shoulder compartment, filled by a reserve magazine. The left arm had a panel extending from its shoulder down to its elbow. A pair of strong, yet mid-weight legs, the left one of which bore a thick rectangular shield on its knee, held up the core. Its right arm held a long battle rifle and its left held a long-barreled shotgun. Yet the most prominent feature on the Armored Core was the extremely long weapon hooked to its back, almost double as long as the Armored Core was tall. Hollow cones lined the end section, which had thick protruding spikes on the three edges.

The missile sentries were still setting up their next round of missiles as the AC pelted it was a point-blank shotgun blast and continuing along its way, kicking off from the raised platform, then the adjacent platform to leap across the waterway below.

As the Armored Core grinded along the ground upon landing, the ballistic cannons opened fire. The heavy shots charged towards the Armored Core, but hit nothing as the agile machine Hi-boosted sideways and kicked off the bridge, charging straight for the cannons. Missiles launched towards the AC as it started to gain altitude, now level with the ballistic cannons. The AC quickly boosted forward and towards the cannons, making the missiles follow behind it. With one swift maneuver, the AC grabbed the barrel of the cannon, ripped it clean off, and threw it at adjacent cannon. It then leapt upward, boosting behind the cannon, causing the missiles to blow a hole in the front of the now unarmed cannon.

When the AC landed, it quickly engaged its Glide boost, soaring back to the tall tower in the center of the facility, weapons at the ready.

The white AC was met with a direct hit from a heavy rail cannon shot, blasting apart a chunk of its core and knocking it back. Its yellow eye rose, looking for its attacker.

"I don't know who you think you are, Migrant, but I know what you're here for. That data is property of the Corporation!" The man who had been barking orders in the operating room now stood in a mid-heavyweight Armored Core just atop the rows of buildings. His AC held a heavy rain cannon in its left arm and a Gatling gun in the other. Its core plate was wide and thick, but the rest of its body was sleek and slightly lighter plated.

A scoff sounded over the intercom as the hostile AC lurched forward, Glide boost activated. "And you think you'd be able to stop me?" His deep, yet bone-chilling, voice rung out as his AC fired a volley of battle rifle bullets at the other Armored Core.

The Corporation pilot retaliated by leaping upward and releasing a string of powerful Gatling rounds, then launching his VTF missiles from both shoulders.

The Gatling rounds bounced off the rapidly approaching AC, but the missiles impacted heavily, leaving behind a large explosion as the corner of a row of buildings was consumed in the blast.

At this point, the Corporation AC had landed, now at the front of the bridge, waiting for his enemy with his rail cannon unfolded and propped up. The pilot squinted his eyes as he tried to see through the smoke. The collapsing building was causing more and more smoke to cloud the view and plenty of deafening noise. A sinking feeling quickly overcame the pilot as he heard what sounded like the enemy switching its weapons, but multiple times. The sound of metal on concrete screeched behind him as he quickly folded up his rail cannon, whirling around to face his foe. His face turned white at what he saw.

The white AC had fully unfolded the Mass Blade, and fire had already begun to charge at the base of the thrusters as it drifted around the corner. The AC Hi-boosted, nearly closing the gap between the two Armored Cores. The enemy Armored Core hadn't looked so frightening until now with fire and electricity whirling around it like an aura as it rapidly drew near.

"Shit! No!" The Corporation pilot cursed as his hands rapidly leapt for the Glide boost ignition. The AC didn't get far, as the enemy had predicted his next move properly.

The Mass Blade's thrusters ignited, propelling the already speedy AC at its prey at an ungodly speed. The Mass Blade's spikes tore into the ground like a knife through butter as its user swung it upward.

The Corporation Armored Core's core completely bashed in with the initial impact. When both ACs stopped moving, its predator continued its swing, completely ripping apart the machine. It was as if the AC had been put through a trash compactor and thrown into a furnace when the white Armored Core folded the Mass Blade back onto its back.

Slowly, the victorious predator trudged up to the wreckage, looking down at what barely looked like the remains of an Armored Core. After a few moments of silence, the pilot slowly began to laugh. Soon, the intercom was filled with maniacal laughter, the AC leaning back as the pilot did in his bloodlust-filled excitement.

When the pilot had stopped, he smirked, his thin lips spreading wide. His golden eyes gazed down, the smirk growing.

"The strong grow stronger by dominating the weak. You are weak. Well, you were. Now you're just ash." He then stomped through the wreckage, heading towards the runway.


End file.
